215 Buick (and Oldsmobile) Tech

[SuperBuickGuy]

So I bought what I thought was a Buick 215, but nope, is the rarer 215 Olds.... still don't know what its future home will be; however... information/discussion as to what the build should look like would be appreciated.



I know it looks like that's 6 bolts per head, however, the bottom (outside) of the block bolt holes are simply bolts plugging passages.
The upper hole (nearest the lifters) is the extra hole for Oldsmobile


Sometimes you don't know why the motor was pulled.... not so much in this case.


I wonder where that bolt came from - it's not a carb bolt....



I'm not impressed with the Buick lifter bores - why do they feel the need to hang those suckers into space?

Anyway, here's the heads I found earlier



note those don't have holes under the rocker assembly for the 5th hole - these are the style Mickey Thompson used on his Indy cars.



Tonight I'll post up pictures of the Oldsmobile heads.... I'm now kicking myself for selling the 65 300 I had... ah well, I want the 64 motor (aluminum heads)....

So what should I do with this? Since Mr. Stiney seems too attached to his Austin to be willing to trade it for a Buick worth about 50% of what the Austin's worth - I'm thinking something VERY light, mid-engined (scaffolding car like an Arial?); flat crank so it sounds like a Ferrari and goes like stink.... dunno

[Russell]

well I am sure its going to need a turbo or two! For some reason v8 powered golf cart or lawn mower came to mind

[mike343sharpstick]

Cool, one of these in a pro-touring Monza Mirage or Coz-Vega would be killer. And cheap!

[STINEY]

I can always be coerced..... and have an affinity for folding green stuff with dead presidents on it.

We could put it in a big crate marked "Ag Cores"? Shipping is more reasonable that way.

[hauen]

D&D Fabrications can probably point you in the right direction as far as mild to wild builds, though they specialize in the Buick version, like most people. The http://v8buick.com/ board is pretty helpful too, when they aren't flaming each other over the 300 Buick build in Hot Rod or whatever mag it was in.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I can always be coerced..... and have an affinity for folding green stuff with dead presidents on it.

We could put it in a big crate marked "Ag Cores"? Shipping is more reasonable that way.

from what I understand, Stiney's barn is the automotive equivalent of the dead letter office - lots goes in, nothing comes back out (which is as it should be).

Thanks for the D&D link... interesting stuff, on Ebay I have exhaust manifolds for the MG conversion for sale. All that said, TA performance does have blank castings for 215 heads - but honestly, if you have 6 bolts available for torquing the heads down... why don't you use them? A friend has got me interesting in building your own heads - and this foundation may be just the ticket since I can make this thing as strong as a LS motor with very little work.... maybe something in the overhead cam arena might be interesting..... dunno yet... or cut up one or more dual overhead cam heads and weld them back together....

V8 Buick... great place

[SuperBuickGuy]

the heads:

[hauen]

Rover deleted the outer row of bolts and recommends not even torquing/installing them if you do any work on older engines. Something to do with gasket sealing iirc. Maybe that's why Olds felt it necessary to add another row to balance it out. If you're going to build a rip-snorting aluminum V-8 I'd honestly look for a 4.0 or 4.6 out of a wrecked Discovery or P38 Range Rover, it has the big journals like the later 300 and cross-bolted mains, the outer row of bolt holes have been deleted also. Plus it's all set up for FI goodness.

[hauen]

Regarding DOHC heads and all that, it just so happens the Nissan VQ family of 3.5/3.7 V6 engines have the same bore spacing (4.24 in./108mm) Hmmmmmm... Someone on the Buick boards mentioned some other Japanese engine that has the same bore spacing too, but I can't find the thread now, of course. It's way too involved and over my head, machining-wise, but I'd love to see someone do it just because they could.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Regarding DOHC heads and all that, it just so happens the Nissan VQ family of 3.5/3.7 V6 engines have the same bore spacing (4.24 in./108mm) Hmmmmmm... Someone on the Buick boards mentioned some other Japanese engine that has the same bore spacing too, but I can't find the thread now, of course. It's way too involved and over my head, machining-wise, but I'd love to see someone do it just because they could.

and that's pretty much the only reason I would. A friend suggested using a BBC head on my 455 build, that involves much cutting and dicing with a bandsaw.... and that got me thinking. I don't have the chops yet to chop up a $2000 head for an experiment; however, cutting up an asian head for such an experiment would be educational if not quite the conversation piece.

[BBR]

Here's a cool thread where guy started with a 215 and ended with a Rover 4.0L in a Ranger.

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/f402/buick-aluminum-215-into-91-ranger-233622.html

[DanStokes]

When I was in the Buick dealer (remember, we were only about 3-4 miles from the GMPG main gate) the Buick engineers claimed that the Buick heads flowed MUCH better than the Olds units. No idea if that's true.

D&D are great folks. I bought the installation kit for my Vega from them and it fit it in perfectly. The founder of D&D was one of the experimental engine installation guys at the GM Tech Center and was very skilled at putting engines where they don't belong. I'm guessing the company is run by maybe a son or some such as the original guy would be pretty old.

Dan

[Hoffbug]

Reviving and old one..
Did you get the engine together?

[SuperBuickGuy]

nope, still stuck in the wasteland of Rover builds.... though I did pull the Rover out of the shop.

I can update one bit, though. So I have the 4.0 Rover motor out of the Land Rover and there's quite a bit of difference (externally) than the 1962 motor. Most notable is the structural oil pan and the cross-bolts on the main caps. Because of the cross-bolts reason alone, I'd use a Land Rover motor before I used the Buick or the Olds block (I have both).
With that said, I'm full up with projects for 10 years - so this one isn't going anywhere for awhile.

[Hoffbug]

I have a set of 64 Buick 300 heads that we ported and fitted with Ferrea Buick V-6 stage 1 valves.. a 4.6 block with a slipped sleeve .( I have T hat liners for it ). a 4.6 crank Im going to offset grind close to a 3.4 stroke... Still lots of stuff to do on the Buick /Rover hybrid stoker..
I also have a little Olds 215 enigine that I just took apart to rebuild and put in the Astre for now.. The Bummer is its a 2BBL engine with only 8.75 to 1 heads.. Ive been beating the bushes looking for a good set of 4BBL heads to bump the compression up to 10.25 to 1. The casting number I need ends in 829.. If you have any you want to sell or any leads I would appreciate it.. Flatlander said they could do domed pistons for around $850 But Id rather not spend that kind of $$$ on this little engine.